Beaver Dam plans for $567 million data center development
BEAVER DAM, Wis. (WKOW) – Leaders in the City of Beaver Dam have been laying the groundwork over the course of several months to attract a massive data center development on more than 500 acres of farmland on the community’s northside.
If it moves forward, the data center will be built between County Highway A, County Highway W and Hemlock Road. The lots together are advertised by Alliant Energy as costing $20,000 per acre, totalling 520 acres. A specification sheet for the site calls the land “[o]ne of the largest available business properties in Wisconsin” and touts its access to transportation networks.
The Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation (BDADC), a local economic development organization, confirmed the efforts to bring a data center to the site in a statement to 27 News.
“The Beaver Dam Area Development Corporation, the city of Beaver Dam and Alliant Energy are working in partnership on a potential data center project,” BDADC’s Executive Vice President Trent Campbell wrote in the statement. “While this project has yet to be finalized, significant progress has been made.”
Hints of that progress have emerged over the last several months at city council meetings. At its November meeting, the Beaver Dam Common Council approved the creation of a tax incremental district encompassing the entire property. The district is intended to incentivize development at the site.
A presentation by city staff estimated the district would create $567.6 million worth of construction over two phases of building that would conclude in 2028 and 2031.
At a meeting the following month, the council met in closed session for more than an hour to consider a development agreement with Degras LLC. Business records show the company is registered in Delaware using a services company that obscures the LLC’s ownership.
The council approved the development agreement by unanimous vote.
Despite the local approval, the project is not yet a done deal.
“The entity we are working with is currently attempting to obtain non-local project approvals,” Campbell said in the statement. The city is not publicly naming which company will be the end beneficiary of the proposed data center. “Any future development will be dependent on the success of those efforts.”
One such effort is an application by the American Transmission Company to the state Public Service Commission. The company is asking for approval to expand electrical service to the site. Data centers have made headlines for the immense amount of power they draw.
This article was originally published by a www.wkow.com . Read the Original article here. .